I've heard some demos of the Blofeld synth, and got a simmilar impression (ok the sounds were not too harsh), but the quality and diversity was consistent with other factory demos mp3's for other gear.

I think the Blofeld sounds really good!! Warm, defined and not harsh at all.
I'm really impressed how good this 399euro synth sounds!

Went in to Clavia's homepage just now to check for updates, and noticed an annoying thing - my Firefox browser window was resized - wider and shorter. If anyone from Clavia is reading this - please remove this effect!

I went to the shop and tried one, and to answer my own question - yes it plays stereo samples Bringing me a step closer to getting one. It was filled with some quite nice stereo string samples, then the occasional guitars and keyboards. Most of the presets were pretty sample playback oriented for now. On the FX section I personally dislike that they have put the delay before the overdrive, I'd prefer to have delay after distortion. And I missed NordLead's Unison mode.

I've heard some demos of the Blofeld synth, and got a simmilar impression (ok the sounds were not too harsh), but the quality and diversity was consistent with other factory demos mp3's for other gear.

I think the Blofeld sounds really good!! Warm, defined and not harsh at all.
I'm really impressed how good this 399euro synth sounds!

I cycled through the Wave presets in a shop at the weekend and was pretty unimpressed... maybe it has a lot of possibilities.. I know Clavia presets are notoriously bad but this left me flat._________________Steve

Whenever a new synthesizer is released, people are complaining about the bad presets in forums like this. I would sincerely like to know whether these people, who complain, would be able to offer better presets . I have not heard the Wave yet, but I must say that I love the presets of the G2 and I am not ashamed to use one of these presets, if it is appropriate for a song.

Don´t get me wrong: usually I use my own patches, but not because I think that they are "better" than the presets. I use my own patches, because they are "customized" for the purpose they serve in my compositions. I think this is what synthesizers are all about compared to sample players: a synthesizer allows you to create a sound exactly for the purpose it serves in a specific composition. This is why presets seldomly work - no matter how good they are - and so it is useless to complain about them.

Wrt to the quality of factory soundsets, you have to remember that people who contribute to it are essentially giving their sound design tricks away for all (who buy the synth) to see/use/perform with. I had to hold back quite a bit when I did the G2 factory sound set patches. It is amusing that some of my factory patches ended up in commercials or TV shows (which I do not get paid for).

With all respect, if this is your attitude, it is a shame that you were allowed to contribute patches at all. Synthesizer sounds are not a part of a composition that you must get paid for. This whole madness concerning the "intellectual property rights" is pretty ridiculous these days. I wish that musicians had the craftsmen attitude nowadays that they had in the past. You got paid to create good presets. If you held yourself back, when you did this, you did not do your work properly and should be ashamed of it rather than complaining about the fact that you did not get more money for these presets, when they were used by other musicians - as presets are supposed to be.

I don't understand the "giving ones secrets away" attitude. If everybody held that position, this forum would be pretty useless and the patch archive would be empty.

My experience is that folks that are truly interested and want to understand ones work (that want to get into ones personal "patching secrets" so to speak) are also folks that will appreciate it and honor it.

Of course most preset-creators are paid in a way for their efforts, mostly the pre-production model is exchanged for a production model to keep: most synth producers pay in goods instead of money.

Then there is the problem of the third hand user of the 'factory preset'. He paid the synth producer for the Patch. Only does the Patch belong to him now? Certainly he isn't the owner, just like the synth producer isn't the owner. He is free to use it in any circumstances he likes. But still there is a moral draw back...

When somebody uses one of the Nord Modular Patches I created and published on the Net, mostly they notify me by mail. When they use it in a composition they send me a mp3 or the complete CD as a 'thank you'. (This happened a lot to my Patch 'Aeolus Harp in D'. The Patch is a noodle and starts always in the same pattern, so when heard in three compositions one have to smile

Back to Dasz remark. It feels a little bit different when your Patch is used by a commercial company advertisement for a rather big broadcasting, I believe it has something to do with cars...? There's a lot of money involved. But there is also another thing to it: if that company wants to pay, who the hell are they referring to, because most factory presets are anonymous...?

Here are my feelings on the factory sounds. I poured my heart and soul into them, and to this day, I get some very nice emails of thanks (incl thanks for inspiration). I have (albeit rarely) received a few negative comments, but I was asked to do were "sequencer examples" which is what I did (and not complete epic tracks ). It is not up to me to decide whether people will like my patches or not, if they learn something from them, that's great, and if some people buy the synth because of my patches (which has happened on more than one occasion), then I did my job.

Clavia seemed very happy about the quality of my patches, and "accidentally" took screencaps of them when writing the 1.0 & 1.x manuals (including the cover page which has RedMonday_DZ loaded), not to mention multiple mp3's to demo the synth with. Some press which reviewed the synth, also seemed to have liked my patches loaded in their screencap (like RedBlonger_DZ).

Keep in mind that I did about 60 unique patches and 6 prf2 in about 4 weeks, and were started when an EMPTY G2 beta unit arrived at my doorstep. Don't forget that I was also testing the beta unit and performed a lot of testing and generated a lot of feedback at the same time. I did contribute many of my building block tricks in the factory sound set like trigger sequencers (Mystica_DZ.pch), cross modulation, cuelist sequencers (in BCHydro.prf2, RedMonday.prf2), vocoded drums (Sasquatch.pch2), the list goes on.

I have also given many of my tips and tricks and suggestions here over the years, such as this one:
http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-7357-50.html (the NordWest05.zip file which contains some good stuff - only downloaded 50 times although the topic has like 6100 views)

So what do I hold back and why?

I did hold back some specific tricks and complete patches and prf2's which I intend to use in my performances which clearly define my sound, and have defined my sound even before the G2 came out.

These are by no means tricks which take away (or hide) from the modular experience. This is a personal thing that each G2 owner develops as they use the synth. Some complex tips and tricks only confuse new G2 owners, who are new to modular synths (which is why I kept my factory patches as simple as possible). I have talked to beginner users and they raise this as an issue. Some tricks and tips I have given away during the European Modular Event.

By not giving my sound away into the pubic domain, I don't feel so bad when someone uses a preset of mine in songs, a cycling company commercial during the Tour De France, a TV show about driving in Iceland, etc etc... I did not get any compensation for the ads, only gratitude. I have given my sound away when doing custom sound design for some people and bands. I do like to get compensated for such work.

Now, I wish I had contributed sounds to the Nord Wave, & I did make that offer to Clavia. The reasons that the Wave sound set is the way it is, we can only speculate. As I have always said, Clavia is a small company, with limited resources, and just as any company, other factors (including development stuff) contribute to the product being released now and as is. Keep in mind Xmas is the #1 selling season for musical instruments, which could be the reason as well, one can only speculate.

Clavia could very well release new presets in the future (& they still have to release the sample manager), but I don't know as I am not involved in the Wave in any way. The Wave is their product not mine.

---

We should discuss the Nord Wave features and how we can implement them in the G2 (which could be used an amazing sampling playback instrument, since we have 4 inputs and MIDI out control). Maybe someone could try some patches and post them (along with some templates & samples in say Ableton live format).

Just some thoughts. Tim, I am always grateful for your posts, even though in general I do not use people's patches, but I learn from their comments.
/Dasz

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